Donald Trump's victory in the race for the American presidency has apparently revived the Russian offensive in Ukraine. The capital, kyiv, was targeted at dawn on Wednesday by a combined Russian missile and drone attack, for the first time in more than two months, at a time when the Ukrainians are losing ground on the front and fear losing control. support from the United States.
Ukraine, for its part, claimed responsibility for the assassination, also on Wednesday, in annexed Crimea of an officer of the Russian Black Sea fleet, whom it accuses of having ordered deadly missile strikes on its cities. The attack on kyiv comes the day US Secretary of State Antony Blinken promised in Brussels a “firm” response to North Korea's alleged involvement alongside Russia in the war in Ukraine.
Washington has corroborated Ukrainian claims that North Korean soldiers are now “engaged in combat operations” in Russia's Kursk region, a small area of which has been occupied by Ukrainian forces for three months.
The South Korean intelligence agency also confirmed them, assuring that “North Korean troops (…) are already engaged in combat operations” in this part of Russian territory. More than two and a half years after the start of the invasion, the Russian army now benefits from the reinforcement of nearly 11,000 North Korean soldiers, according to kyiv and the West, which the Kremlin has not formally denied .
Russia has significantly stepped up drone raids on kyiv, carrying out them almost daily since early October, but this is the first time in more than two months that missiles have been fired at the same time. “Russian armed forces launched a combined missile and drone attack against kyiv. The first time in 73 days,” noted the military administration of the capital.
Six missiles et 90 drones
According to this source, Moscow used ballistic and cruise missiles in addition to drones for this operation which “lasted more than two hours” but which did not cause any deaths thanks to the anti-aircraft defense.
In Beryslav (south), a 52-year-old woman died in another Russian drone attack, the governor reported. In total, six missiles and 90 drones targeted seven Ukrainian regions during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, only one of which is located on the front, underlined the Ukrainian Air Force, saying it had shot down two cruise missiles, two missiles ballistic missiles and 37 drones. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov, for his part, reiterated that the Russian army was only hitting “military targets” in response to a question about the increase in civilian casualties in Ukraine.
On the Ukrainian side, a source within the security services (SBU) claimed responsibility for the murder of a Russian officer in Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Moscow, as part of a “special operation” intended to “liquidate a criminal of war “. This soldier, killed in the explosion of a car bomb, had “ordered the firing of cruise missiles from the Black Sea on civilian targets in Ukraine” and constituted “an absolutely legitimate target”, commented this source.
American assistance threatened?
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, reacting to the nighttime attacks against his country, once again denounced “Russian terrorism” and praised the “effective” response of the anti-aircraft defense. He expressed his “gratitude” to his Western allies who have been supplying arms and ammunition for two and a half years.
But this assistance seems threatened, with Ukrainians and Europeans fearing that the United States, with the return of Donald Trump, could interrupt aid to the Ukrainians at the very moment when they are facing great difficulties on the battlefield.
In eastern Ukraine, the Russian army, despite significant losses, conquered hundreds of square kilometers in October. It claimed Wednesday the conquest of the small village of Rivnopil, at the junction of the eastern and southern fronts.
In this hot context, politically and militarily, outgoing President Joe Biden is seeking to accelerate the delivery of military aid. Of the envelope voted in the spring, approximately 9.2 billion dollars remain to be allocated, namely 7.1 billion to be drawn from American arms stocks and 2.1 billion to finance arms purchase contracts. , according to the Pentagon.
